Nothing to do with chocolate tarts

It is time to break the news- I am working at Glace Patisserie! Located at Chinatown Plaza, 34 Craig Road.

The coming Sunday will mark my 2 weeks in Glace. Wheew! It is hard work. 11 hours from morning to dusk. We scurry like ants to produce enough cakes to feed the customers, sometimes even rejecting orders. Are our cakes that good? (they aren't cheap, by the way)

Ofcourse, our cakes are good. They are fresh. Very fresh. Cake bases, sponge, frangipane tart, are made the day before. Then we come early the next morning to begin assembling the cake. Cut the strawberries! Whip the cream! Prepare the glace! By 11am, all cakes should be out in the display counter. After the morning battle, we give the ktichen a clean and begin the next day's production. And the routine continues.

Sometimes, when I return from work, all I remember is washing and cleaning. We don't have a designated wash-up guys you see (though I think we should). Therefore, every bowl, every single scraper you use, you got to wash it. And me, being the newest member in the kitchen, somehow washes alot. Well, I can't blame the others since I am not familiar with the kitchen. At times, I would just stare dumbly at the others, until the chef sends me off to the sink. Right now, I think I am improving. I am the cake wrapper. Right.

Our cakes are lovely to see and eat, the main reason I still there, so that I can eat the trimmings for free!

I love the strawberry souffle! A thin layer of sponge, on top of it, a very light cheese cake. Then we mask it with cream and lastly heap strawberries on it! I am also falling in love with their matcha cake, marron pie and rinrin cheese tart! Yumm yumm!

When will I be able to mask, pipe, cut, fold, bake, I wonder?

Hello! I am a working individual once again. Employed. Hired. Paid. $_$

I have been wondering, can you be inspired by yourself?

Durian Mousse Cake

Ants just tried to eat my macbook. I found them crawling with their six spindly legs all over my keyboard. Ah, I see one, two on my screen now. But I shall ignore them. As long as they don't prevent me from typing, I am pretty fine with ants.

Saturday, was my cousin's birthday. On top of an interview at Glace Patisserie, I am also going to make a 25 pax birthday cake for her.

Flavour will be durian, since her mum is going to supply me with home-grown durian from her village in Kulai. The kampong durian has a fantastic, powerful flavour. It's beautiful, pungent smell permeates out of its container, seeps out of the fridge into the kitchen. My mum was mortified. My little chocolate tarts, which share the same fridge, all taste and smell like durian.

I used the normal genoise recipe for this, and baked them in ikea food trays, therefore the round rectangle shape. Then I soaked them in abit of molasses sugar syrup. I thought it would go well with durian. Next I prepared the durian mousse with semi-whipped cream and gelatine. The easy part was over.

Assembly was more tricky. I realised, with shock, that I am a poor cream-whipper at home. It is never perfect the way I want it. It is either too soft, too hard, and when I'm irritated, it turns to butter. But I try my best. So, after the mousse is nicely sandwiched between the two genoise sponge layers, I attempt to mask the cake.

Masking (the cake) is without a doubt the most tedious process in the production of a proper celebration cake, for me. Got to wait while the cream harden slightly in the freezer. Got to make sure the cream is smooth and flawless looking on the cake. Got to have even layer of cream on all sides. Got to find something to do while you wait for the cream to harden...

The fun part- decorating. With fruits and mint leaves from the garden. Voila! The Birthday Cake is completed!

The birthday girl, my cousin. 21st birthday.

My family and her mum.

I cut the cake.

End.

Variations

Mum got this idea that we could open a small stall to sell little chocolate tartlets, after she saw the cute tartlets I made for my bosses. So she got me to make a variety of flavours.

70% is, well, 70%. Very bitter, very good.

Coffee liqueur is lost in the bitterness of the 70% chocolate base. haha.

Grand Marnier, too, is lost, to a even greater extent, in the excellent 70% chocolate. hahaha.

Mango is a weird one. I put fresh mango cubes into the ganache to bake. The mango sort of melted into the chocolate, creating this subtle fragrance that only mango can produce, all according to my mum. I, for the record, could not taste anything mango.

What a fun excercise.

Chocolate tart

Tart au chocolat noir

I resigned. 44 days after.

As an expression of gratitude towards my (ex-) bosses, I made the Le Cordon Bleu tart au chocolat noir that Ja seems to like so much, for them. I even went to Ulu Loop to get the chocolate for this. So so far.

These little tartlets were supposedly for my kitchen colleagues. BUT I could not help but eat a few. And I met a pastry-loving taxi driver, therefore I had to give him at least one to try. While having coffee with Aileen, we had two of the tartlets. (I'm not to be trusted with sweet gifts...) Hence after doing the math, I figured it wasn't worth to go all the way down just to pass them the leftover tarts. I shall make another batch this week! And practice self-control!

The whole tart was, in a way, harder to eat. It is rather noticeable if one slice were missing. Therefore, that arrived safely into my boss' hands.

End.

Sooey's Birthday

Yes, it's Sooey's birthday. An invitation to Overeasy, without informing us of the time nor the address, that's Soo. And because it is Soo, our very dear broccoli, we try our best to make it to her party, even though we're hell as pissed that she's one hour late for her party.

Then again, knowing Sooey will disappoint us yet again, the rest of us went to eat dinner first, hence were also an hour late for her party. (thus we arrived at almost the same time) Another reason being we, the non-partying, non-clubbing people, are not entirely sure if Overeasy were a restaurant or a pub, though we did strongly suspect the latter. Therefore, better to be safe than sorry and hungry, we vote for dinner first.

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao.

Sawee has two smiles: one wide (above), one long (below).

It's been a long time since we got together like that, Joee was always missing due to her many commitments. Sometimes, when we meet up like this in full attendance, it feels kind of awkward. When I see my friends grow and change in ways that bewildern me, I become uncomfortable. Then again, who am I to judge? For all I know, I might be the weird one.

For this dinner, we ate as if we were still in secondary school, pubescent with the apparent disregard for table manners.

Then slowly, we made our way to meet Soo, the birthday girl.

"Sooey dear, Happy Birthday! Do read those books! I hope they can help you in finding your passion back!"

After 45 mins, we headed home.

End.

Astons at 2 Handy Road

This is one of the cheapest Astons meal I have eaten, though am a little guilty for not being honest, I'm all the more happy for my wallet!

Cheapest restaurant-served IBC rootbeer in town, which price I have forgotten. All I recall was it's very reasonably priced.

Wagyu set, $38.90 or $39.80? I can't remember. It's not bad for the price. Lots of fats marbled in the meat, though not as fine as the kobe variety. I chose fries and coleslaw for the 2 sides. I didn't touch the little ramekin of mushroom sauce though.

BBQ Bourbon Ribs? I forgot the entire name, and the price as well. Sawee choice for dinner. It is tasty for one. Abit dry though.

End.

Food Hunt

Food hunt from last last week.

I was about to be sick. My head feels heavy with marshmallows, my nose was constantly running. But I thought about how precious my day off is, and I don't want to spend it lounging at home, I decided to go ahead with the food hunt- the silly choices we make when we're young.

Together with H, we started off with traditional malay kueh tutu- puttu piring, at Gelang Serai. This tutu kueh is not like the common variety that you would have with the coconut/ peanut filling. It has only one kind of filling, which is gula melaka, and you eat it with the salty dessicated coconut. Hmmm.

3 for $1. H and I ate this piping hot off the steamer. The kueh is so short, it falls apart while you're trying to eat it. Salty, sweet and fragrant. I like!

And, that's the end of our food hunt. haha. I couldn't find the energy to travel to Thompson for chicken rice, nor Clarke Quay for taiyaki. Hence, we decided to go down to kinokuniya to hunt for books instead. Next up: book hunt. Hunting for books was fun. It requires a special set of skills- good eyes and luck; good eyes when you found your book, luck when you get the edition you want. Anyway, I got two books, a pastry bible and The Last Lecture by Randy Paush (inspiring!), at a 20% discount! :D

To meet M at her workplace, we took a bus down to Island Creamery, Serine Center.

I have heard many nice things about Island Creamery but have never tried any of their ice-creams until this day. Gosh, the ice-creams are goood. Flavours are true and powerful. To quote M: Mango ice-cream tastes just like mango, not mango ice-cream.

We had: Pulut Hitam, Coconut swirl and Bandung.

H, M and I.

Feeling slightly better after the ice-creams, I headed to meet my parents for a round of chilli crabs.

End.